ages of 45 and 74 rate their health as either fair or poor, 35% of their African American

counterparts do so (National Academy on an Aging Society, 1999). Given African

American women's poorer health, and the finding that men with poorer health are more

likely to be work disabled (Bound et al., 1995; Hayward, Friedman, and Chen, 1996),

African American women may face a higher risk of work disability than White women.

On the other hand, Pienta and Brown's (2001) study indicates that, for various reasons,

health may have less of an impact on women's labor force participation than men's. An

investigation of temporal antecedents of health disparities may provide a more complete

understanding of the race-retirement relationship among women

 Race, Wealth, and Retirement Behavior

 Transitions into the "retired" status are also expected to vary by race and current

socioeconomic position. Temporally proximate factors such as wealth are likely to

intervene in the race-retirement behavior relationship. Previous research indicates that

women with greater net worth are more likely to retire versus continue working (Brown

and Pienta, 2002). Racial differences in wealth are great. While the median household net

worth among Whites in 1990 was $44,408, African American's median household net

worth was $ 4,604 (Eller, 1994). Even more striking is the fact that the racial gap in

wealth is widest at lower levels of income. Among individuals in the lowest quintile of

income in the U.S., the net worth of whites is 10,000 times higher that that of blacks

($10,257 vs. $1) (Eller, 1994). Race differences in home ownership and home value

contribute substantially to racial disparities in the distribution of wealth (Quadagno and

Reid, 1996). In 1994, whereas 64% of Whites owned their homes, only 43.4% of African

Americans owned their homes (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1996). And, whereas the average

home equity value for Whites was $78,708 in 1992, African American's average home